Excerpts

Mar. 20 | [W]e are supposed to be the refuge and protector of all infinite beings. The beings with unfortunate karma that we are supposed to be protecting are instead being killed without the slightest compassion, and their boiled flesh and blood are being presented...

Mar. 14 | Those who make this heartfelt aspiration for the Bodhisattva way
Will be free of all lower rebirths,
Free of harmful companions,
And will quickly see Amitabha, Infinite Light.
– Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
(The King Of Prayers)
In order to train just...

Mar. 6 | Who you are is defined
by what you’re willing
to struggle for.
– Mark Manson
One of the realizations [of the Buddha] was this: that life itself is a form of suffering [as it includes ageing, sickness, death, and all kinds of mental suffering...

Feb. 27 | Good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct,
good mental conduct.
A person endowed with these three things
is to be recognized as a wise person.
– The Buddha
(Lakkhana Sutta)
Unskillful Verbal Action
[The Buddha]: “And how is one made impure in four...

Feb. 12 | Make up your mind,
to better your mind,
to better mind your
words and deeds,
to better your life.
– Shilashanti
Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room,...

Jan. 29 | Be kind whenever possible.
It is always possible.
– H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama
[A]fter Sulak [Sivaraksa] saw a photograph in which the Dalai Lama was drinking Coca-Cola, [h]e mentioned his disapproval when he met with the Tibetan leader in Dharamsala....

Jan. 23 | Receive needs
humbly and gratefully.
Offer needs
humbly and gratefully.
– Shilashanti
Before the Dalai Lama departed from Thailand, he told his secretaries that he wanted to go out in the morning on alms round. It is common to see orderly queues of...

Jan. 16 | Radical transformation of society
requires personal and spiritual change
first or at least simultaneously.
– Sulak Sivaraksa
A topic that Sulak [Sivaraksa] weaves into nearly every talk, essay, book, or discussion is spiritual friendship, which he regards...

Jan. 8 | Spiritual practice starts
by stopping the unskilful,
before starting the skilful,
and perfecting it.
– Shilashanti
A famous bandit, a murderer named Angulimala, had been sighted in the neighbourhood… Against all advice, the Buddha set out for...

Jan. 1 | What to be dissolved
is not the self,
but the sense of self,
by realising it is not there
in the first place.
– Shilashanti
Suzuki Roshi… had a very helpful way of describing the relief that comes from getting over yourself. He used the expression...

Dec. 26 | Cultivation is
more transformation
of the unskilful
than its eradication.
– Shilashanti
In the hours preceding his final enlightenment, when he is doing battle with his ego, the Buddha’s tormentors shoot volleys of arrows at him. Some people interpret...

Dec. 19 | Praise and blame, gain and loss,
pleasure and sorrow
come and go like the wind.
To be happy, rest like a giant tree
in the midst of them all.
– Buddhist Saying
While Right Speech conventionally means abstaining from lying, gossip, vain talk, and...

Dec. 12 | I have good will for footless/ two/ four/ many-footed beings…
May footless/ two/ four/ many-footed beings do me no harm.
May all creatures… meet with good fortune.
May none of them come to any evil.
– Ahina Sutta
Ajaan Fuang, my meditation...

Dec. 4 | As a mother would risk her life
to protect her child, her only child,
even so should one cultivate a limitless heart
with regard to all beings.
– Karaniya Metta Sutta
You should be as devoted to cultivating and protecting your goodwill to make...